Perhaps the best beginning for this report would be to simply quote Secretary of State Kerry in his own words. He declared in an interview with Israeli Channel 2 Television where he warned of “chaos” and a “third intifada” should the “peace talks” with the Palestinian Authority fail. He went into more detail claiming and asking, “Failure of the talks will increase Israel’s isolation in the world. The alternative to getting back to the talks is a potential of chaos. I mean, does Israel want a third intifada?” He continued threatening Israel stating, “I believe that if we do not resolve the issues between Palestinians and Israelis; if we do not find a way to find peace, there will be an increasing isolation of Israel. There will be an increasing campaign of delegitimization of Israel that’s taking place on an international basis. That if we do not resolve the question of the settlements and who lives where and how and what rights they have; if we don’t end the presence of Israeli soldiers perpetually within the West Bank, then there will be an increasing feeling that if we cannot get peace with a leadership that is committed to nonviolence, you may wind up with leadership that is committed to violence.” These threatening words came despite Secretary Kerry claiming that he has made “significant progress” in the last 24 hours. Kerry finished the day by telling reporters in Amman, Jordan after meeting with Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh, “We made significant progress in our discussions about a couple of areas of concern in the panorama of the concerns we have.” Secretary Kerry’s final words were, “It is important for us to be able to proceed carefully and quietly.”
The change in his tone at the end of the day makes one wonder why he decided to use such threatening tones and language when speaking to Israelis on his interview on Israeli television yet spoke soothing words in Jordan where his comments would most certainly reach the Palestinian people. Could it be that the White House has decided that Israel is at fault for any lack of progress and that the Palestinians have done everything in their power to make peace possible? Does President Obama really believe the accusations coming from the Palestinian leadership that Israel with their settlements has made making peace impossible and that the Palestinians are the true seekers of peace while Israel which has made countless concession over the years while receiving only violence, death, terrorist bombings, rocket attacks, rock attacks on their highways and paid a price in blood beyond measure in the search for peace are standing in the way of reaching a peaceful settlement? Israel returned the entirety of the Sinai Peninsula for peace, offered the entirety of Samaria and Judea to Jordan for peace but Jordan released their claims to these lands remitting them to Israel only to change that pledge years later at the urgings of Yasser Arafat and the Arab League pledging the historic heartland of the original Hebrews lands which made up the kingdoms of Israel and Judea long before the ideas of Christianity or Islam had broken forth onto the arena of Earthly religions. Israel has sacrificed blood and land for peace and would move everything and anything necessary within reason for a true and lasting peace. The Palestinians, on the other hand, demand that whatever peace they agree to with Israel will be temporary as they insist that they retain the right to continue their resistance until the entirety of their lands are liberated and Israel has been erased and supplanted by Palestine and the Jews have been removed be it by being exiled from their homelands yet another time or simply slaughtered in a frenzy of jubilation at the eradication of Israel as anything other than purely Muslim Arab lands. Those are the truths the world ignores time and time again.
Some have asked why such obvious truths are ignored but the answer is not all that difficult to discern. That truth is that the world is aware that Israel is willing and has and will continue to make sacrifices in the name of peace no matter how absurd or hurtful those sacrifices may be while the Palestinians when pushed to make any concession for peace claim that as a bereaved people they must never be imposed upon and should such insane request be pursued any further they threaten violence which they will commit whether they are pressured or left to their own devices. The world realizes that the Israelis act as a civilized nation while the Palestinians destroy even those things gifted them in order to allow for their economic betterment. Such was the case with the greenhouses in Gaza which were immediately torn apart when Israel donated them in order to provide a ready and operating business to aid the Palestinians and instead made into rocket launchers and rockets with which to fire into Israel in attempts to murder civilians or whomever was unfortunate enough to be where these explosive projectiles struck ground. The world is aware that the Palestinians have utilized ambulances to move terrorists into positions to launch ambushes and also to move equipment and armaments with which to attack Israelis but nobody cares to pursue justice. On the other side, whenever the Palestinians cry that the Israelis have destroyed their olive trees or invaded the sanctity of their al-Aqsa Mosque, which entails any Jew being permitted to enter onto the Temple Mount, the world rushes to denounce Israel and do whatever the Palestinians demand as retribution to assuage their hurt feelings. That sometimes appears to be the only foreign policy that many European parliamentarians and politicians are able to pursue such and lately appears to have further infected the White House.
President Obama has often claimed to be the best friend that Israel has ever had in the White House. If the words spoken today by Secretary of State Kerry are indicative of the feelings and policies coming from President Obama and the White House, then please stop being Israel’s best friend and simply try to be an honest broker seeking a true and honest peace. I realize that seeking anything honestly may be a new experience for President Obama as he appears to have some difficulty with the truth. President Obama is especially talented at knowing nothing, much like Sgt. Shultz from Hogan’s Heroes. What many may not know about the gentleman who played the part of Sgt. Shultz, John Banner, is he spent part of World War II in Auschwitz as he was Jewish and somehow managed to survive, a miracle in and of itself. But back to the serious subject at hand, what exactly is it that President Obama honestly wishes Israel to do concerning the Palestinians. We all heard his early first term demands that Israel return back behind the Green Line, that Israel freeze all building beyond the Green Line even including Eastern Jerusalem, for Israel to release terrorists in order to make an offer towards peace that the Palestinians would understand, and then there were the multiple insults against Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu which included but were not limited to making Netanyahu enter and leave the White House by a side entrance instead of using the customary front entrance as virtually every visitor, refusing to hold a joint press appearance as is customary for heads of state after meeting with the President in the White House or anywhere else, deserting him to have dinner with his family and not only not inviting Netanyahu to join them but instructing him to consult with his aides and let the President know when they had decided to meet the demands President Obama had laid out which are unknown but were likely the same as those being demanded by Palestinian Authority Chairman Abbas, refusing to meet with Netanyahu in New York when both were there for the opening ceremonies for the United Nations General Assembly though President Obama did have enough time to spend close to an hour with the hosts of the television show “The View” which was being filmed in New York at the same time and finally President Obama when visited by Israeli President Peres, probably the one person in Israel who might actually agree with the views of President Obama, he met him in the Blair House across the street from the White House instead of in the White House as is customary. Other than these and numerous other statements and actions by President Obama and many within his administration, President Obama might have actually slipped a few kind remarks in about Israel in order to appease some audience. There was the famous line during the campaign where Senator Obama speaking to the AIPAC convention claimed that Jerusalem would remain the undivided capital of Israel; a statement that he backed away from and then completely contradicted numerous times going forward starting within hours of making the statement. One can basically figure that if President Obama or most of those in his administration speak kindly and in favor of Israel they are either making a grievous mistake or are on some mind altering drugs, but one can be assured they do not actually mean those statements.
Beyond the Cusp
Beyond the Cusp 